With captaincy or without it, Pat Cummins is right on the money each and every time he makes an appearance.
Perfect captaincy debut
Patrick Cummins had a glorious debut as test match captain. He not only continued to do what he does best i.e to run in ball after ball and bowl with flawless accuracy but handled his troops quite well as well.
Cummins hadn't taken a single 5 wicket haul against England in test cricket before Ashes 2021-2022. As he celebrated Australia's 9-wicket victory in the first match of Ashes 2021-2022 played at the Gabba, he also back his first 5 wicket haul in test cricket against England.
Almost everything went right for the newly crowned skipper as he got to bowl first on a green top in conditions which were very difficult for batting and then there was clear sunshine when Australia came out to bat.
An outing to remember
"Really enjoyed it, a lot of things did go right, probably from the toss, overcast conditions, the wicket had a bit in it and to turn up on day 2 - under blue skies, someone's smiling over me. Really proud of everyone. A really complete performance, the bowlers did everything on day 1 and Marnus-Davey with a big partnership and the way Travis played, it is a sign of a really positive group. I was happy everyone stuck to it - we bowled without much luck yesterday, fair with all the luck on day 1. That's why we want him in the side, he can take the game away in a couple of hours, we have seen him do it for South Australia."
"Head averages 45 now, he is still young but is an old pro with the amount of first-class cricket he has played and hopefully he is away now. Hazlewood was a little bit sore yesterday, with a five-match Test series, did not want to try and break him yesterday and he pulled up okay today [on Hazlewood]. When I had 20 to go, we couldn't find him [smiles], we looked everywhere in the stadium. He is fine, we did not want to risk him and he will be alright for Adelaide [on David Warner]."
Like Shaun Pollock and Glenn McGrath, Cummins has the ability of landing the ball on a sixpence.
To add to that, he is 10 km per hour quicker than both of them, which is a handful for the batsman -- no matter how good you are.
